Princess in Hiding
by dreamerwriter15
Summary: What if Rapunzel cut her own hair before Eugene was stabbed? And what if, when he was on his way to rescue her, the kingdom was invaded, and they had to stay in the tower valley? Rapunzel POV.
1. Free

Tower life

Ch 1 Free.

Rapunzel POV

"Are you all right?" Gothel asked, worried. I emerged from my room and held on to the curtain that acted as my door.

"I am the lost princess." I breathed softly.

"Oh, please speak up Rapunzel; you know how I hate the mumbling." Gothel said, annoyed.

"I am the lost princess, aren't I?" I asked in a louder, hard tone. Gothel's eyes grew wide. "Did I mumble, mother? Or should I even call you that." I hissed.

Gothel chuckled, "Oh Rapunzel, do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

I shoved her against the wall. "It was you! It was all you!" I said.

"Everything I did was to protect you." She emphasized.

I shoved her out of my way, "Rapunzel." She yelled.

"I have spent my entire life hiding from people who would use me for my power…"

"Rapunzel!"

"…when I should have been hiding, from you!"

"Where will you go? He won't be there for you." She stated.

"What did you do to him?"

"That criminal, is to be hanged for his crimes."

"No." I gasped.

"Now now, listen to me, it's all right. Everything is as it should be." She said as she attempted to soothe me. She tried to pat my head. I grasped her hand.

"You were wrong about the world, and you were wrong about me, and I will never let you use my hair again." She struggled out of my grasp, and slamming into the mirror, broke it into hundreds of razor sharp shards. Realizing what I had to do, I picked up a large shard.

"And do you know why I'll never let you use my hair again?" She just looked at me. I showed her the shard. "Because it is no longer mine." Before she could stop me, I grabbed my hair just above my waist and sheared it with the shard of mirror. Sixty-eight feet of my hair hit the floor and instantly began to turn brown. The hair on my head turned a vivid brown as Gothel screamed.

She gathered up my hair as if she could keep it gold if she pinched it just right. She instantly began to age; hair turning white and her skin wrinkly and gray. "What have you done?" She shrieked as she made her way to the window. I ran to stop her, but before I could, she launched herself out the window. I ran to the window to watch as she turned to dust before she hit the ground.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm free. I'm free from Gothel forever!" I laughed out loud. I danced around my tower. I tied my severed hair to the hook and read. An hour later I heard galloping hooves, Max and Eugene. A minute later, I heard Eugene call my name. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!" He had a tone of urgency to his voice.

I opened the window and let my hair out of it. He climbed it quickly. "Rapunzel, I thought I'd never see you again!"

I leapt into his arms and kissed him. "Rapunzel, your hair!" he exclaimed as he saw that my hair was shorter and a different color.

"Yes Eugene, I'm free from Gothel forever. I love you Eugene. I am the lost princess Eugene. I want to go to my parents." I stated.

"You can't!" he warned.

"Wha, why not?" I asked, alarmed.

"As I was coming to save you, the kingdom was invaded. Your mother and father have gone into hiding, and we must stay here."

"Ok."

He eyed the tower. "Could you give me a tour of our new home?" he asked enthusiastically.

"Of course," I said as I led him around the tower. I showed him the kitchen and pantry, the dining room, my room, Gothel's old room, and my little library.

"Nice place we have here." He said. "We just have to make it sustainable."

"Ok. We have fertile land for the garden that we'll need, fresh water, and a home." I said.

"We just don't have trees." He stated.

"Your right, but we do have Max." at that moment, Max neighed sadly. We slid down my hair to the ground. Max stood at the base of the tower with his head hanging low. "Everything is going to be alright Max." He looked at me with mournful eyes. Eugene walked around the tower. When he found the old entrance, he proceeded to remove the rocks that sealed it. I walked up to him. "I'm going to go to the market and buy some seeds and things with the money that Gothel had before the invaders arrive." I said.

"Ok my dear." He said as he kissed me.

I climbed back up my hair and grabbed a couple of things. I grabbed Gothel's cloak, her basket, some of the money that she had stored in her old room, and a long bit of strong rope. I slid back down my hair laden with these things. Eugene had half of the doorway cleared when I was back on the ground. I took off Max's royal insignia and laid them carefully on the ground, leaving just his saddle and bridle. He seemed to understand what we were doing. I donned the cloak and pulled the hood over my hair. I held onto my basket as I mounted Maximus. Taking his reins in my hands, I guided him in the direction of the hidden entrance of our little sanctuary. We broke through the wall of vines, and began our trek to the market.


	2. Invasion

Princess in hiding

Ch 2, Invasion.

Rapunzel POV

I rode Max through the forest. No one was scattering. Odd, I would have expected everyone to be fleeing. When we reached the market, I bought some axes and picks, seeds for various vegetables; tons of sturdy and pretty fabric, plenty of fruits and veggies, more thread and needles, horse feed, and a hoe and a shovel to work the garden.

As I was tying these things to Max with the rope, I saw the invaders. A line of ships with blood red sails was visible on the horizon, Viking invaders. Not the ones from the pub, but ruthless warriors. I heard various screams and people grabbing their belongings and fleeing out the main gate. The tiny kingdom of Corona didn't have an army large enough to fend off an invasion, so everyone fled.

I quickly mounted Max and we bolted out of the kingdom. We were at the secret entrance in an hour.

We slowly and quietly trotted through the wall of vines. When we emerged in the sheltered valley, Eugene had completely removed the rocks from the door, and he was surveying the valley. I dismounted Max and undid the ties holding the tools to Max. He shrugged out of them and cantered to the stream. Whinnying happily, he took a drink from the stream.

Eugene walked over to me and took my hand. "Come here, there is something you need to see." He led me to the back of the valley. In a small patch of dirt grew a magic, golden, flower. As it so happened, the sun did not release just one drop of sunshine that day, but two. We no longer needed my magic hair; all that we needed was the flower. "That's not all." He said as he led me through a small tunnel concealed within the rock behind the flower. We reached the end of the tunnel. What awaited us was an extremely large valley. You couldn't see the other end very easily; you couldn't see the walls on either side very well either. It was so large in fact, that the valley was a little bit larger than the kingdom of Corona itself. The valley was encircled by the same mountains that encircled the tower valley. A large grove, no, forest of trees, teeming with game, was visible to the far right. To the left of us, on the other side of the valley, was a large, clear, lake with a waterfall. Dotted with run down houses and cabins, all of the available ground was fertile farmland. At the very rear of the valley was a mine rich in copper, silver, and gold. This valley looked like the ruins of an old settlement before the presiding kingdom was deserted several years ago, long before Gothel and I inhabited the tower. I would say the valley was abandoned about fifty years ago, judging by the condition of the farm plots and the houses. It would need some work to make it inhabitable, but this was the perfect place for the refugees of Corona.

We returned to the tower valley. I marked out a plot of land about twenty feet square. I grabbed the hoe that I just bought and began to ready the garden for planting as Eugene hoisted the heavy axe and went outside of the valleys to fell a few trees.

After I readied the plot, I climbed up the ladder and stored away the food, fabric and sewing supplies.

When I returned Eugene stood in front of the entrance with a dozen or so refugees, four families, each with a mother, father, and a total of six children, come of the children holding baby siblings. They huddled in their torn clothes, exhausted from their run to escape the Vikings. I took pity on these poor peasants. I then recognized two of the girls and a baby. One of them, a school girl who braided my hair yesterday, the other girl and the baby she held I saw at the shrine to myself and my parents. I dove down to hug these poor children. "Where did you find them?" I asked Eugene.

"They were running when they heard me chopping down a tree." I led them to the ivy entrance.

"Please, help us kind lady." The little girl holding her baby sister pleaded.

"I'll do all I can little one."

"Rapunzel, I believe this is yours." Eugene said. With that, he produced my tiara from the sack that he had slung over his shoulder. I took it and placed it gingerly on my head.

"I am the lost princess Rapunzel." I informed the villagers.

"Your highness." They said as they bowed to me.

"Do any of you know a trade?"

Two strong men stepped forward. "I am a skilled mason," said one of the men.

"I am a third generation carpenter." The other man said.

The other two men simply stated, "We are but simple farmers."

"We can use all of you." I said. I led them through the tunnel. All of their faces lit up when they saw the fertile valley. The farmers went to work clearing the fallow fields with their own tools. The mason and the carpenter went back to the tower with us. They began work on a large stable. I took the women and girls up to the tower with me as the boys stayed down to help their fathers. I showed the women all of the fabric that I had, several hundred yards of wool, cotton, and colorful silk. I also showed them the multitudes of spools of thread that I had in my position, thread of all different colors. The women went to work immediately repairing their tattered clothes and making new ones. The children read the several books I had while the two infants played with their simple toys. The school girl showed signs of a high fever. I brought her down to the ground, and carried her to the magic flower.

"What a pretty flower." She said as she tried to pick it.

"No" I said as I stopped her from picking the magic flower. "This is a magic flower." The girl coughed. I sang the special song to the flower. _"Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the fate's design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine, what once was mine." _The flower glowed brightly, and the girls cough disappeared. The little girl stared wide eyed at me, and then she bolted like an arrow to the door of the tower.


End file.
